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February 9, 2007
Mayor Sues To Force Issue In PBA Arbitration;
Seeks Panel Chair's Installation;
Lynch: 'He's Desperate'
By REUVEN BLAU
The Bloomberg administration Feb. 2 sued the Public Employment
Relations Board, seeking to force the state agency to designate
the chairperson of the arbitration panel handling the Patrolmen's
Benevolent Association contract.
"What's inexplicable is how PERB has dragged its feet and
slowed the arbitration process to a halt instead of appointing
a panel to hear the case," Mayor Bloomberg said in a statement. "This
is preventing us from settling this contract and giving Police
Officers, rookies and veterans alike, much-deserved raises."
Want City's Choice Named
The lawsuit asks the Albany County Supreme Court to order PERB's
Director of Conciliation, Richard A. Curreri, to name the city's
choice, Arnold M. Zack, to chair the mediation panel.
The PBA, however, has questioned PERB's authority to act in the
absence of a functioning board. PERB Chairman Michael R. Cuevas
left in December after heading the agency for the past eight years.
The board's two other per-diem members, John T. Mitchell and Marc
A. Abbott, have also departed, with no replacements named by Governor
Spitzer.
The PBA has also called Mr. Zack - the former president of the
National Academy of Arbitrators - biased against the union because
he served on a panel that a decade ago froze cops' pay for two
years. That prior decision was based on a wage pattern set by other
uniformed unions at the time.
"This suit is a desperate attempt by the city to stack the
deck against its police offices by trying to name a biased arbitrator," PBA
President Patrick J. Lynch said in a statement. "The Taylor
Law decrees that a neutral arbitrator will decide the terms of
this contract, and police officers will not stand for this blatant
attempt to tamper with the process."
The city's suit, however, cited a memo attached to the list of
nine arbitrators presented by Mr. Curreri to both sides in December
stating that the city and union had to make their selections within
five days. "The parties shall immediately notify the Board
of the designated public member," the document states. "Upon
the failure of one party to participate in the selection process,
all names on the list shall be deemed acceptable to it."
On that basis, the city contended that Mr. Curreri must immediately
designate Mr. Zack as the chairperson. The full PERB panel is not
needed to take that "ministerial" action, city Labor
Commissioner James F. Hanley contended last week.
But Mr. Lynch has maintained that PERB currently doesn't have
the power to decide the matter. "The PBA, acting in their
officers' best interests, have complied with every directive issued
by PERB in this current dispute," he added. "But clearly
the city is afraid to give these officers a fair hearing before
an impartial arbitrator."
In attempt to boost the NYPD's recruitment efforts and break the
contract stalemate, city negotiators have twice offered to raise
the starting pay for new cops by roughly $10,000. Mr. Lynch has
rejected both those proposals, primarily due to the concessions
those deals demanded of new hires in other areas, such as vacation
time.
The Bloomberg administration has maintained that the wage model
for uniformed employees was set this round of bargaining in the
fall of 2005 by the Uniformed Firefighters' Association contract,
which provided raises of 3 percent and 3.15 percent in its last
26 months.
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